Advice for a one-off Novice taking Sports pics

WHIP IT!

Hi Folks

Just looking for some advice - am hoping to take a few pics of a horse race tomorrow. Got a loan of a good Linux camera from a friend so am ready to roll.

Just wondering what the basics are in order to ensure I get the best possible pic. ie - direction of sun, angle etc?

I'll only have once chance to take the shot so want to get it right. I was planning on standing at the outside rail, but would I get a better pic from the inside of the track maybe?

I'm not expecting a masterpiece, but if anyone could point out one or two of the most obvious Dos and Don'ts of taking these kinda pics.

Many Thanks

Paulw

Fast shutter speed, light behind you generally works well (lights up the subject), just slightly off to the side of the direction they're going, etc. Low angles can work well, depending on the situation.

I've a few sample of such on my website, if you're bored.

shepthedog

If the race meeting is tomorrow dont forget an umbrella.

Look for different angles, are you looking for horse photos or general photos of the day?

Always remember whats behind the subject/horse and think if it will be distracting. Eg bright colours or ugly distractions like cars.. Plain as possible background..

Enjoy it..

WHIP IT!

I'll be looking to get at least one good pick of the race itself with as many of the horses (there'll be 8 altogether) in it as possible.

Paul, how do I get into your website?

Paulw

Errr ... it's in my signature - my website

WHIP IT!

Paulw wrote: »

Errr ... it's in my signature - my website

Cheers, I think I seem to have people's sigs turned off cos I can never see em!

Ricky91t

A good idea will be to set you camera to sport mode as this will increase your chances of freezing the action! most of all good luck

WHIP IT!

Just a quick note to say thanks for the advice - think it went well. Nothing award-winning but was hoping for 2/3 real nice ones and think I got em.

Thanks again.

shepthedog

Post them up if you get a chance, would like to see how it went

WHIP IT!

If I find a decent one or two I might...

hunnymonster

Could I post another noob sports question (or two actually) here?

I take quite a lot of pictures at races, triathlons mostly. I have a basic set up (Nikon D 50 schwarz Sigma DC 18-50 + 55-200) They are much closer the "snap" end of the spectrum than the work-of-art end but the stupid questions are

1. The swim: I can usually lag my way onto one of the safety boats but these rarely get closer than 50-100m from the swimmer meaning I have a whole lot of sea and little swimmer in the picture. What would be the best use of money to get closer shots? A better lens or kayaking lessons;)

2. On the bike, I find the moment a bit fast and I get blurred photo's. I've set the dial to sports but not played around with any settings? Any suggestions?

Ricky91t

hunnymonster wrote: »

Could I post another noob sports question (or two actually) here?

I take quite a lot of pictures at races, triathlons mostly. I have a basic set up (Nikon D 50 schwarz Sigma DC 18-50 + 55-200) They are much closer the "snap" end of the spectrum than the work-of-art end but the stupid questions are

1. The swim: I can usually lag my way onto one of the safety boats but these rarely get closer than 50-100m from the swimmer meaning I have a whole lot of sea and little swimmer in the picture. What would be the best use of money to get closer shots? A better lens or kayaking lessons;)

2. On the bike, I find the moment a bit fast and I get blurred photo's. I've set the dial to sports but not played around with any settings? Any suggestions?

ok 1.you could get the nikon 70-300(very cheap)and maybe a 2x or 1.4 kenko telecoverter you might have to manual focus but you'd get close into the action!

2.Erm fo the sports you want to freeze the action?or just get it sharper?If so set it to A mode and change your shutter to 1/250 that should freeze the action

I might be wroong about nikons as im not used to them but thats what i figured out from looking at photo's of the top of the D50

Actually im might be S the mode
its shutter priority mode you're looking for!

WHIP IT!

Alright - I'm a first-timer so go easy one me!

All advice and direction welcomed!

YeahOK

I like 1 and 3.

On 1 maybe crop it to get rid of the dude in the anorak. He's a bit distracting. Given that all the horses were turning right onto the track was there an opportunity to nip under the fence onto the track to get a better angle?

On number 2, it lacks a focal point for me. Maybe if you had really focused in on one or two of the horses and traps with a nice depth of field it might have looked better. It just seems busy if that makes sense. (Not that I'm anyone to be saying that, I often make this mistake myself and hence some of my photos while they are nice photos could be improved.)

On number 3 a tighter crop to get rid of the nose of the horse coming into frame left. Nice angle on the shot though.

Nice photos though, keep it up!

WHIP IT!

Thanks for the input YeahOK

The first pic I kind of took in a hurry and definitely would've got a better angle if I'd hopped the fence - it was actually part of a sequence of about five that looked well when viewed in sequence. Hadn't actually noticed the dude in the jacket til you said it - now he's annoying the crap out of me!

Really enjoyed it all the same, and must admit it was more difficult than I thought. I had the camera set to take 3 pics in sequence when I held the button, with the thinking being that the more I took the more chance of getting a few good ones. But at times I think I'd have been better off just focusing on getting on good one at a time.

Anyway, have ordered a new camera online (this one was a loaner) so I'm hooked now!

mervifwdc

hunnymonster wrote: »

Could I post another noob sports question (or two actually) here?

I take quite a lot of pictures at races, triathlons mostly. I have a basic set up (Nikon D 50 schwarz Sigma DC 18-50 + 55-200) They are much closer the "snap" end of the spectrum than the work-of-art end but the stupid questions are

1. The swim: I can usually lag my way onto one of the safety boats but these rarely get closer than 50-100m from the swimmer meaning I have a whole lot of sea and little swimmer in the picture. What would be the best use of money to get closer shots? A better lens or kayaking lessons;)

2. On the bike, I find the moment a bit fast and I get blurred photo's. I've set the dial to sports but not played around with any settings? Any suggestions?

q1. Not sure as I've not seen the pictures. I would think that an imageof a person swimming is never going to be super as to get a tight shot, you'll want a 200 or 300 lens, and be only 20 to 30 feet away. As you go for longer lenses, being in a boat just will not work. However, if you were at the location where they entered (or exited) the water, you would have larger targets to shoot, and you'll see their bib numbers etc. Perhaps there, go out into the water further than them (even standing in a wetsuit?) and catch them diving in or getting out. The alternative is a very stable boat, and a 500 or 600mm lens, which is getting very expensive.

q2. This is much easier to master. You can do one of 2 things. 1. learn to pan, which is to move the shot with the cyclist, and allow the background to be blurred. even use a little 2nd curtain flash if you want / can. Search this board for examples of panning shots and techniques.
2. - a noisy picture is better than a blurred picture, so shove that ISO way up there if it's not a bright day. 800, 1000. even 1600. Then go into apperture mode, and set the lens as wide open as it will go. take a shot and check your shutter speed. If it's less than 1/500 then you'll have to live with it. if it's over 1/1000 then you can turn the iso down a little to keep the image cleaner.

whats good about q2, is that it involves technique and practice, not money to fix :-)

Merv.

Ricky91t

2. - a noisy picture is better than a blurred picture, so shove that ISO way up there if it's not a bright day. 800, 1000. even 1600. Then go into apperture mode, and set the lens as wide open as it will go. take a shot and check your shutter speed. If it's less than 1/500 then you'll have to live with it. if it's over 1/1000 then you can turn the iso down a little to keep the image cleaner.

WOuld'nt it be better to stick it in shutter priority?
Then he'll alway have a guaranteed shutter speed whild will freeze the action

Paulw

ricky91t wrote: »

WOuld'nt it be better to stick it in shutter priority?
Then he'll alway have a guaranteed shutter speed whild will freeze the action

Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority - it's personal choice. For me, I'd shoot in Shutter Priority. Set the shutter speed to 1/200 (should be fast enough for swimming), or 1/400 for someone running. Bump your ISO up as high as you need to get your maximum aperture.

Panning for the cyclists should work great, with practice.

mervifwdc

Paul is correct, it's sort of a personal choice.

For some folks, Shutter priority is good as it lets you set the best shutter speed for the sport or activity, and also for how steady your hand is! if your using a 300mm lens in a rocking boat, I'd suggest you want over 1/800. If youre on land and have a monopod, 1/200 sounds good.

So why then would some of us choose Aperture priority? basically whichever you pick, the other is going to vary up or down to get a "correct" exposure. If you pick Aperture priority, and pick the lens to go wide open, then the shutter speed will vary up and down, but you have fixed your aperture as big as possible and therefore fixed your depth of field to be as small as possible. you've also caused the shutter speed to be as fast as it can be.

if you were to pick the shutter speed, lets say 1/200 and you get a bit of bright sunlight, then what happens is the lens aperture closes down , say from f5.6 to f16, which means your Depth of field is varying as the exposure varies.

now it comes down to what your shooting. Some subjects you might want the biggest depth of field you can get, others you might prefer to stick with the smallest.

Merv.

Paulw wrote: »

Aperture Priority or Shutter Priority - it's personal choice. For me, I'd shoot in Shutter Priority. Set the shutter speed to 1/200 (should be fast enough for swimming), or 1/400 for someone running. Bump your ISO up as high as you need to get your maximum aperture.

Panning for the cyclists should work great, with practice.

Stephen

I prefer to use aperture priority myself. I find when I use shutter priority and the light is low I end up with a lot of dark, underexposed shots. Its really tempting to upgrade my D50 to something that's got better high ISO performance but its been serving me well so I think I'll hold on to it until Nikon releases something to replace the now-ancient D80.

photo_gaa

Stephen wrote: »

I prefer to use aperture priority myself. I find when I use shutter priority and the light is low I end up with a lot of dark, underexposed shots. Its really tempting to upgrade my D50 to something that's got better high ISO performance but its been serving me well so I think I'll hold on to it until Nikon releases something to replace the now-ancient D80.

I use Aperture Priority most of the time myself, at 2,8 99% of the time, on a very sunny day I'm pop down to F8 etc....